Obi said this in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, while commending the Nigerian government for rescinding its decision on the remittance of 40 per cent of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of universities.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the last general elections, Peter Obi, has demanded an immediate revamp of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
Obi said this in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, while commending the Nigerian government for rescinding its decision on the remittance of 40 per cent of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of universities.
It is gratifying that the FGN has reversed its demand on the 40% IGR from universities. It is ab initio totally inconceivable that grossly underfunded universities would be expected to dole out 40% of their IGR to the FGN.
— Peter Obi (@PeterObi) November 17, 2023
Recall that the Nigerian government finally bowed to pressure by suspending the automatic deduction of 40 per cent from the IGR of tertiary institutions.
Reacting to this, the LP presidential candidate therefore urged the government to promptly reorganise and revamp TETFund.
Obi wrote, “It is gratifying that the FGN has reversed its demand on the 40% IGR from universities. It is ab initio totally inconceivable that grossly underfunded universities would be expected to dole out 40% of their IGR to the FGN.
“Moreover, that demand underlines a lack of attention to the persistent abuse of the TetFund, which is presently not being properly utilised to fund tertiary education as initially envisaged.
“In fact, FGN should promptly reorganise and revamp TETFund to fulfil its statutory role of funding Nigerian public universities, both federal and state-owned, and also in assisting those owned by voluntary agencies.
“The time has come for the government to pay more attention to the financial autonomy of our public universities while fulfilling its statutory financial responsibility to our public tertiary education.”
